Mexico's Drug Trade

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of the Western Hemisphere. By examining the institution of drug trafficking in regard to bilateral relations between the United States and Mexico, one can clearly trace these same repercussions and the difficulty in creating successful policy to combat them.
Economic Background of Drugs and the Drug Trade
Since the beginning of human existence, societies have attempted to regulate mind-altering substances, prohibit them, or establish some sort of moral control over their use, possession, and distribution. Man has always used them for diverse purposes including magic, religion, aphrodisiacs, medicine, and war (Del Olmo 1). These mind-altering substances carried no monetary value until nation states began creating laws and penalties against the consumption and possession of drugs. With these prohibitive laws firmly in place, drugs lost their exclusive use value and acquired exchange value as commodities, subject to the laws of supply and demand (Del Olmo 2). Thus, ...

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the finished good or service, in this case, cocaine, heroine, and marijuana. Thousands of Latin American farmers assume the supplier role by harvesting and selling the drug producing plants to middlemen. These middlemen, often part of powerful Mexican or Colombian drug cartels, Mafia, or guerrilla groups, then produce the final consumable drug that is smuggled into the United States or other developed countries where demand exists. This process is referred to as drug trafficking or narcotrafficking (Monitor 16).
Despite government official's knowledge that drug trafficking is an underground economic activity, as well as an illegal form of free enterprise, it is practically impossible ...

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